Ghoulish platformer Dokuro charms on PS Vita this week

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After enjoying accolades like “Original Game of the Year” and “Best Vita Puzzle Game” in the US, Dokuro finally brings his chalky goodness across the Atlantic Ocean this week. Players in the EU and Australia can finally enjoy Dokuro’s 147 levels of puzzles, platforms, spikes and saw blades.

My past blog entries in the States discussed the story and gameplay at great length, so for our European friends I’d like to talk a bit more about development of this winsome title.

For those unfamiliar with the game, its story revolves around Dokuro, a skeletal member of the Dark Lord’s army, who makes the career change from peon to hero after witnessing the tears of a captive Princess. Filled with newfound determination, Dokuro begins his daring rescue. Unfortunately, the Princess doesn’t even seem to notice he’s there until he quaffs a magical potion that gives him a heroic new appearance and the capacity for fancy sword play.By swapping forms, players make use of Dokuro’s skeleton and hero forms to solve puzzles and battle foes while safely guiding the Princess to the end of each stage. They also have access to different coloured chalks that can control the environment by drawing ropes, lighting candles or creating pools of water. At regular intervals, Dokuro will encounter a gigantic boss who must be vanquished through a mixture of action and puzzle gameplay, so players will have to be as nimble-minded as they are dexterous!

A fantastical children’s storybook brought to life with a captivating chalk flair, Dokuro is undeniably charming, but it’s got all the depth and challenge one might expect from a robust, first-rate game. This is largely thanks to the game’s director, Noriaki Kazama, who comes from a strong, core-gaming background. His goal was to create a game that was visually striking, fun and accessible while still possessing the challenging appeal that more seasoned gamers would enjoy.

Development began with a simple internal contest at Game Arts. Everyone tossed in game concepts and the winner was the key design element that would later evolve to what we now see.

They knew they were making some kind of escort mission involving a hero who has to pick up a princess and bring her to safety. The definitive art style came later when Kazama was visiting a book store. His first child was about two years old, so he found himself in the children’s section more often than not.

He was so moved by the art style of one particular book, that he was determined to embody that feeling in his current game project. Before long, Dokuro, the Princess and the Dark Lord were taking shape in their signature chalk-art style, but captivating visuals were not enough.

Having worked on hardcore action games, it was crucial for Kazama to make something of style, challenge and substance that could be enjoyed by a large audience. Approaching development with this in mind, his team would constantly design levels, test them on among themselves as well as “non-gamers” and finally strike a perfect balance between failure and success.

For the action-oriented sequences, tight controls were of the utmost importance so the player would never experience a disconnect from the character they controlled. Toward the end, some of the puzzle stages became incredibly difficult, so an option to skip a total of 10 stages was added to let players fully experience the story even if the puzzles stumped them.

When we asked if he had anything to tell his western fans, Kazama said, “Thanks for your passionate interest in Dokuro and his epic adventure. The team and I have poured everything we have into this game. All of us here at PonKotz Troops hope this game provides countless hours of enjoyment for you!”

Dokuro is available from PlayStation Store this Wednesday, 30th January, priced €14.99/£11.99.

We have submitted our master and are working out some issues that came up. The game has already been rated, and we will hopefully be able to provide a concrete date sometime soon. We really appreciate your patience at this time.

Woohoo! At last. I’ve fancied this game for soooo long! £11.99 you say? Please, take my money, sold! As a lifelong gamer, I’m a fan of most genres, but I’ve alway had a particularly soft spot for a good puzzle platformer, and Dokuro looks right up my alley.

Roll on Wednesday right…after such a long wait, just two more days to go for us patient Brits and our continental cousins.

By the way, does Fred (or anyone else for that matter) happen to know the file size of this little beauty?

Sorry, one last, totally unrelated question. Does anyone know whether Machinarium was ever confirmed for Vita in the end? I read countless rumours and hearsay last year, but I was never sure if the game was ever confirmed or not. Amanita’s follow-up point-and-click adventure, Botanicula would also be a nice fit for Vita’s touchtronic features.

I’m afraid I can’t offer you any… “closure” regarding that question, though I do really like the art style of that game too. Hopefully the developer or helpful member of the PlayStation Blog community has the answers you seek?

It’s coming soon according to the developers. (your definition of soon will be different of course)

@ 11

While I’m sympathetic of the situation with XSEED’s titles in particular, I assume you did at least read the first few lines of the original post first, right?

Wouldn’t it make sense to give Gung Ho the benefit of the doubt at least, especially as they have Aus ratings for this (under Dokuru for some reason) and Ragnarok Odyssey? I’ll assume they’ll confirm one way or the other later.

Indeed, importing is always an option, and it’s great to know you were looking forward to this title!

The one thing I would caution about importing is that the physical US copy will not be compatible with any EU DLC we publish in the future, and you would need a US PSN account to download the DLC released in the States.

Looks mint… Been waiting for this for ages so will defo buy it on day 1. Love these sort of games although my free time and patience isn’t what it used to be so the level skip may get used but will try to crack it first though!

@izorpo The issue with importing ragnarok is, while the game isn’t region locked from what I understand any DLC released for it will be. And as far as I know changing psn account (as in using a US one you have set up)either requires multiple memory cards or a factory reset every time you want to change accounts which is tedious at best

Re Ragnarok Odyssey, if I’ve understood all the posts I’ve read correctly, the base US version of the game (on card) contains all the extra missions that were DLC on the Asian release. There are a few pieces of gear which AFAIK still aren’t available on the US store but might be in the future. There doesn’t seem to be any more DLC released. This is a long way around about for me to say – it doesn’t look like you’ll miss out on anything by getting the US version imported and playing it now (I did). If in the end there’s a UK release and DLC, you can probably still sell the US version for 60-70% of what you paid and get the UK version. There’s always going to be buyers as it’s a physical release and last I heard the UK version is only going to be PSN download, though that may change now a different publisher is on board.

The ONLY real drawback is if EU / US versions will be cross play compatible. I’m hoping they will, but who knows.

I’ve had Dokuro since US launch. I am obsessed with it. It is super fun and can be ridiculously hard in the later vignettes of each stage. They actually let you skip a part if you feel like throwing your Vita across the room so you can keep progressing in the game. I wish more game devs would add this feature since I’ve had to give up quite a few linear progression games that I got stuck in.

If you haven’t tried going back for the Platinum, I highly recommend it. As daunting as the challenge may seem at times, there is nothing quite so rewarding as that triumphant joy you experience when you actually conquer it!

Thanks for the replies Antonio – great news that there’ll be extra DLC, shame US / EU versions won’t be able to play together. Seriously considering selling my US version before progressing too far so I can play with UK friends when it’s released over here. Are you able to give us a ball park on release date (guessing not but you never know). Really impressed with the recent PSN releases and have had my eye on Dokuro for ages – will defo be getting it on Weds. Very impressed with the price point too – thanks! More than happy to support developers going digital download only when the prices are so good!

The game looks cool, I’m surely going to pick it up eventually, but not just yet. There have been so many awesome games recently, like Retro City Rampage, the FF sale, etc. that I’m going to have to wait a month for it, but I’m going to buy it without a doubt :) It looks like the best platformer on Vita. How about a little PS+ discount next month? :P

Pity RO gets released so late, when Soul Sacrifice is almost upon us. I’m sure they are going to devour their sales in Europe. You really should stop messing aroung with us with these late releases, cause in the end you lose even more than we do.

The dlc is irrelevant at this point unless its going to personally come in and kill Surt for me.

Chances are when I am finished with the game I will sale it on. As people now know that UK version will only be downloadable the used games have been going for more than I paid new on ebay

@Antonio

The mage is hard class to play (they usually are but in Ragnarok even more so). I’m a Cleric (healing between rooms on the cheap as it saves on buying health potions). Moonlighting sometimes as an assassin and as a sword warrior. I’ve acquired nice cards and weapons for the two later classes. Just need the luck conversion card for boss cards I’m missing.

The only drawback to playing with other regions can be lag – but I’ve met many people from the US, Asia and parts of the EU and its been fun. Very helpful online community (reminds me of White Knight Chronicles in that respect)

Would be nice if a PS3 version of Ragnarok Online maybe…wishful thinking. Larger screen would be useful – especially ...

The dlc is irrelevant at this point unless its going to personally come in and kill Surt for me.

Chances are when I am finished with the game I will sale it on. As people now know that UK version will only be downloadable the used games have been going for more than I paid new on ebay

@Antonio

The mage is hard class to play (they usually are but in Ragnarok even more so). I’m a Cleric (healing between rooms on the cheap as it saves on buying health potions). Moonlighting sometimes as an assassin and as a sword warrior. I’ve acquired nice cards and weapons for the two later classes. Just need the luck conversion card for boss cards I’m missing.

The only drawback to playing with other regions can be lag – but I’ve met many people from the US, Asia and parts of the EU and its been fun. Very helpful online community (reminds me of White Knight Chronicles in that respect)

Would be nice if a PS3 version of Ragnarok Online maybe…wishful thinking. Larger screen would be useful – especially in battles like Surt as its difficult mainly because of the small screen and the boss is so big you can really see his attack patterns (that would be my main criticism of Ragnarok.

Cant wait to play this game just wish you could some how give us unchained blades as I have wanted to play that since it was announced for the US. ALso I like the look of Ragnar OK odyssey but would like to know if it is like monster hunter for its difficulty as I lost patience in the end with monster hunter.

Finally keep up the great work. Have enjoyed corpse party, demon arts and ogarhythm over the last week and can’t wait to get Dokuro and can only hope for unchained blades.

Thanks for answering my question re the file size…. In fact you’ve answered every question asked and as I write this there is 43 replies to 42 comments which is unheard of on this blog and a very welcome change!Looking forward to making a purchase tomorrow, hope its a success for you.

This will be the same version released in the US, and I’ve personally never had too big a problem with collision detection. Part of the Hero form’s cape is outside his hit box, so that may throw some people off, but for the most part the controls are tight and Dokuro behaves as he should.

Outside of Japan, this game is only available digitally. We understand this is a turnoff for some people, but we firmly believe a digital release for a game is better than none, and it would be a shame if Dokuro never had the chance to leave Japan.

I guess I’m glad that more games are coming, but I’m not going to be thankful because I am *sick* of Europe always getting the short end of the stick.We have half the content of US PlaystationPlus of the games that don’t just stay in the US we always get the later.

looking forward to playing this tomorrow and totally agree with #42 Deena93 that unchained blades would be a very welcome addition to X-Seeds EU selection. Also will ragnarok odyssey be available in retail or just download?